Is this old Stanley worth fixing?

Late post-war manufacture, so it may never have really been flat, and the frog design is poor. Rule of thumb with Stanley planes is that if they are not black, they are not worth tuning up. For $10-$20 on ebay you can find one 20-30 years older with a lot more potential.

Looks like a #4, I would try sharpening the iron, and see if you can make some shavings with it. At the least it is good practice. But I wouldnt put several hrs I it, trying to “fix it” unless it has sentimental value to you. Good luck.

I agre with Shane, it looks like a #4. You can verify by comparing sized here.

I wouldn’t call the dish that serious. You can find several blogs here on restoring planes, I’ve got one that shows some worse looking specimens that came out great.

I agree I would sharpen it and give it a try. I dis-agree that its not worth fixing up, especially if it has sentimental value. You can make that plane work as well as any if your willing to put in the time.

-- There is nothing like the sound of a well tuned hand plane. - http://timetestedtools.wordpress.com (timetestedtools at hotmail dot c0m)

Thanks to everyone for the input.

There isn’t really any sentential value attached here. I like my dad and all, but it’s not a big deal. I saw it lying around, asked if I could use it, he said ok.

As much work as it took to get it even this far, who knows how much time, sweat, and sandpaper it’ll take before it’s flat. I have sharpened the iron already, and I guess it kind of works. Not that well, though. I think I’d better look elsewhere for a jack plane.

-- Brian in Arlington, TX - Laziness is the foundation of efficiency.

If your looking for a jack plane, the one you have will work well. The sole only needs to be extremely flat to be a smoother. Sharpen a small camber on that blade, open the mouth as far as the frog will let you, and if it still doesn’t work for a jack, its not sharp enough.

-- There is nothing like the sound of a well tuned hand plane. - http://timetestedtools.wordpress.com (timetestedtools at hotmail dot c0m)

Don – That’s good to know. Thanks!

-- Brian in Arlington, TX - Laziness is the foundation of efficiency.

It should also make a pretty useable scrub plane as is (well add some camber to the blade and open the mouth a smidge if you really need to). With the sole being that far off in front of the mouth it probably won’t cut super clean, but as a scrub it doesn’t need to.

Also make sure you’re flattening it with the blade in and under tension.. that will warp the sole a little. Its really only (well mostly) important for the sole to be flat in front of the blade, if its recessed a bit behind it, it doesn’t matter as much (and removing to much metal is a waste making the plane weaker).

That’s not too bad. Like Don says, I’d give it a run, nothing to loose, everthing to gain (because hand planes, especially a well -tuned smoother, is a real gateway drug to hand tool use). Move up some grits, get it to shape, then the finer grits for polishing. You’ll get there, and know alot having gone through the process. Good luck!

-- Don't anthropomorphize your handplanes. They hate it when you do that. -- OldTools Archive

Read the Paul Sellers blog, the posts containing #planes

in the title.

It might explain the dish around the mouth.

look also at another recent post here on LJ
http://lumberjocks.com/topics/33937

-- Sylvain, Brussels, Belgium, Europe - The more I learn, the more there is to learn